ACTIVITIES - Focus

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ACTIVITIES - Focus

A1

Review a fictional student case study titled "Focus and Frustration."
Download activity 1 in pdf format


A2

Read Katrina De La Cruz's story. She lives in San Pedro and is a first-year student at UCLA, a great achievement on her part. But she's finding success difficult to achieve because of her lack of funding and her immigration status (she's undocumented, so she doesn't qualify for financial aid or for many scholarships). Pay especially careful attention to the last part of the article, where the writer examines Katrina's study skills. The article is at the following link:

Katrina De La Cruz's story in the Los Angeles Times (Feb. 2, 2009)

Once you've read Katrina's story in the Los Angeles Times article, write a 250-500 word response to it. How does Katrina seem to successfully demonstrate focus in her pursuit of her success goals at UCLA? Use direct quotations from the article to illustrate those successful behaviors.
How might Katrina need to work on more effective focus? What advice would you give her for finding success in her classes at UCLA, to ensure that she can finish with the psychology degree she dreams of? Direct quotes and specific examples will help here, too.
Finally, do you find yourself using any of the attributes of successful focus here at Cerritos College? How might you focus on your studies more successfully? Examples of both your successes and shortcomings, and how they relate to our iFalcon skills, will help.
Bring your written response to class and be prepared to share your ideas.
Instructors: If you'd like to print this activity to distribute to students, download a copy from one of the links below:
Download a copy in pdf format


A3

Download the activity "Defeating Procrastination" and use it to get started on a class assignment:
Download activity 3 in pdf format


A4

Watch the student video on Procrastination. Do you recognize any of the difficulties these students discuss?


A5

Display or project the discussion questions in class (or distribute if not in smart classroom). Have students discuss each question in groups of 3-5. Review answers as a class after all groups have completed group discussions.


A6

Have each student pick one of the College resources, or you pick one for them if there is one that has direct relevance to your course. Have each student visit the resource prior to the next class meeting and write up a 1/2 page summary on the resource and how the student could use the resource to succeed at Cerritos College. At the next class meeting, you can simply collect the papers or continue the assignment with a classroom discussion on the attributes of the resource.